Just for laughs in Bosnia

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

3/3/10, 9:05 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 9:01 PM CET

Valentin Inzko fights back, and raises a laugh.

The European Union has often been criticised for its reluctance to take a firm line on the political paralysis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Bosnian Serbs, led by Milorad Dodik, refuse to hand over more powers to the central government to help advance the country’s ambition for closer ties with the Union.

But the Lisbon treaty appears to have emboldened Valentin Inzko, the EU’s special representative in the country. He took part in a debate with Dodik in Sarajevo on 23 February – an unprecedented event, especially given Dodik’s distaste for travelling to Sarajevo, a Muslim-majority city that he has likened to Tehran.

At the end of the debate, which was mostly a monologue by Dodik in response to (mostly pre-approved) questions from an invited audience, Dodik was asked how he saw Bosnia two years hence. “Without Inzko,” was his response, followed by laughter from the audience.

Inzko’s reply to the same question – “Without Dodik” – provoked even more laughs.

Was this the birth of a new EU policy of regime change among the Bosnian Serbs, announced by the soft-spoken, bow-tie wearing Inzko?